Keywords not logical anymore.

[Syndicated Puzzles]

One of the last tools left for an indie to quietly promote their apps are the keywords. Would be good to have a discussion what has happened to their effectiveness in the last few months.

It really seems the parameters have really switched to a new system employed by apple.

Example: Our app HD Weather

When you search HD Weather you would think a direct name search would show the app with that exact name pretty high on the list. Especially if listed again in your keywords as a precautionary measure.

It seems everything that has HD (lots are unrelated to weather) in the name is ranked ahead of HD Weather (even another one of our own apps). It seems Weather is being ignored in the search as long as an app with HD in it is selling more copies.

Mathematically it isn't possible for an app with a specific name to be found so low on a search unless the search function is based on very bizarre criteria.

I guess some of these apps that aren't related to weather at all could theoretically have entered HD Weather as keywords.

It would really be nice if the search function would actually work as a searchable resource instead of (again) promoting higher ranked apps.

[ThreeCubes]

Originally Posted by Syndicated Puzzles

One of the last tools left for an indie to quietly promote their apps are the keywords. Would be good to have a discussion what has happened to their effectiveness in the last few months.

It really seems the parameters have really switched to a new system employed by apple.

Example: Our app HD Weather

When you search HD Weather you would think a direct name search would show the app with that exact name pretty high on the list. Especially if listed again in your keywords as a precautionary measure.

It seems everything that has HD (lots are unrelated to weather) in the name is ranked ahead of HD Weather (even another one of our own apps). It seems Weather is being ignored in the search as long as an app with HD in it is selling more copies.

Mathematically it isn't possible for an app with a specific name to be found so low on a search unless the search function is based on very bizarre criteria.

I guess some of these apps that aren't related to weather at all could theoretically have entered HD Weather as keywords.

It would really be nice if the search function would actually work as a searchable resource instead of (again) promoting higher ranked apps.

I think it got changed because people were creating really long names for apps to effectively add more keywords. So apple stopped the name of the app being a keyword. Rather than coming up with a decent solution apple always go for the easiest solution.

[Syndicated Puzzles]

Threecubes,

So what I am getting out of your comment is entering the apps name in the keywords is an absolute must now. Presuming that the app name is being ignored altogether the 100 keywords have to be very effective. I am almost thinking misspelling keywords on purpose or picking not so popular terms might give more exposure.

[antarchitect]

It would be really cool if we continue to log our successes and failures here.. try to make some sense of the algorithm.

This is good advice as I'm just getting started setting up keywords for our first release and I now see that all of the articles I'm reading are outdated.

[BlueSpiral]

Originally Posted by Syndicated Puzzles

Threecubes,

So what I am getting out of your comment is entering the apps name in the keywords is an absolute must now. Presuming that the app name is being ignored altogether the 100 keywords have to be very effective. I am almost thinking misspelling keywords on purpose or picking not so popular terms might give more exposure.

I've recently changed all my keywords and found an improvement (possibly) in conjunction with other marketing efforts.

I think we always have to be careful with regards to wasting characters. If it's a common misspelling that lots of people do, then it could give you more exposure IMO as less people will use it as a keyword. When I did mine, I asked myself the question, if I wanted to find my game on a search how would I do it, especially if I didn't know anything about my app (ie that it existed or what it was called).

My games are called Stacword Original and Escape from Stacword Island. For me, the odds of someone typing in Stacword (unless they've seen some marketing) would be lower than say a random search and coming across my games. I've geared my search criteria based on this and also done better targeted marketing in other areas.

[battletictactoepro]

Originally Posted by Syndicated Puzzles

One of the last tools left for an indie to quietly promote their apps are the keywords. Would be good to have a discussion what has happened to their effectiveness in the last few months.

It really seems the parameters have really switched to a new system employed by apple.

Example: Our app HD Weather

When you search HD Weather you would think a direct name search would show the app with that exact name pretty high on the list. Especially if listed again in your keywords as a precautionary measure.

It seems everything that has HD (lots are unrelated to weather) in the name is ranked ahead of HD Weather (even another one of our own apps). It seems Weather is being ignored in the search as long as an app with HD in it is selling more copies.

Mathematically it isn't possible for an app with a specific name to be found so low on a search unless the search function is based on very bizarre criteria.

I guess some of these apps that aren't related to weather at all could theoretically have entered HD Weather as keywords.

It would really be nice if the search function would actually work as a searchable resource instead of (again) promoting higher ranked apps.

I am totally agree with you on this. My app name is Battle Tic tac Toe Pro, but when I typed in tic tac toe my app is not in the list. Other apps that don't have tic tac toe name on the title are coming out.